What Makes a Great Franchise Business Coach and How You Can Make Them More Successful

The skills to look for and what franchisees DON’T want from an FBC

One of the most difficult – but also most crucial –  roles on your support team is the franchise business coach (FBC). FBCs are there to support and motivate the franchisee, but also to execute on the corporate team’s goals and needs and ensure compliance. 

At times those dual responsibilities—representing the franchisor’s interests while also helping to solve the challenges a franchisee is facing—can often leave FBCs feeling stuck in the middle. 

Angela Cote, CEO and founder of AC Inc. and a former FBC, says it is one of the most difficult roles in a franchise system. In, What Every Franchisor Should Know About Franchise Business Coaches, she writes, “Setting your FBC’s up for success starts with attracting the right type of person to fit the unique set of tasks this position requires.” That starts with understanding the role of the FBC.

What is the role of the FBC?

• Help franchisees grow their businesses. Increasing profitability not only benefits the franchisee, it’s critical to the growth of the brand. Antonio McBroom, a Ben & Jerry’s franchise owner, sees his FBC as an extension of his team. They provide perspective on what’s happening in other franchisees’ businesses and in other markets. Bill DiPaola, COO of Ballard Brands, believes the FBC has two goals: help franchisees make more money, and save more money to their bottom line. 

• Know your franchisee’s definition of success. Each franchisee has a different reason they are in business, and has a different end goal. The more you know about them, the more you can tie their performance and results to those goals. This starts with working with franchisees to define a clear, personalized vision for their business and what they want to get out of it over time.

• Coach and build relationships. Relationships are built on trust, which takes time. McBroom points out, “We need to experience some storms together,” before that trust is solid. As a coach you need to put yourself in the franchisee’s shoes to understand and RESPECT their perspective. If franchisees don’t believe you have their business and best interests top of mind, it’s hard to convince them that anything you are saying or doing is something they should take into consideration.

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The next step is attracting the right people to coach your franchisees. These are some of the key takeaways to consider as you hire, train, and support your support team:

What characteristics and skills make a great FBC?

• Soft skills. Emotional intelligence has become more important in working with franchisees. FBCs need humility, strong communication skills, and an understanding of when and how you can offer flexibility around what you are asking franchisees to do. Franchisors need to provide this type of training to their coaches – not just when they join the team, but continually to help them learn and practice these important skills.

• Brand (or industry experience). Franchisees respect FBCs that have been in their shoes. That could mean hiring FBCs that come up through one of the stores, working for franchisees, owning a business – anything that shows them this FBC has “been there.” If you can’t hire people from within your brand, design training to incorporate hands-on work experience with franchisees in a location before they are put into a coaching role. Amy Perkins, Senior Business Consultant at Ben & Jerry’s, also recommends looking for education OUTSIDE of franchising to bring new ideas and fresh thinking to franchisees.

• A thick skin (or hard chin). Franchisees complain. Sometimes they just need to be heard, and they can come at you hard. Some days you have to take the punches before you can move them through it. 

What franchisees don’t want from FBCs:

• Don’t rain on my parade. When franchisees are excited and optimistic, they don’t want you to immediately present the negative side of the story. They need you to be a coach and sometimes more importantly, their cheerleader!

• Snitches get stitches. This got a chuckle from the audience, but playground rules apply. Everything you talk about doesn’t need to go right back to corporate. A great FBC needs to know what can stay between the two of you to help the relationship and business, and if/when something needs to be funneled back to the franchisor.

• Don’t shove YOUR changes at me. When you want a franchisee to invest additional dollars or make major changes, frame the investment around THEIR goals and business. Give examples of how it’s helping others and the results you are seeing. “Sell” them on it vs presenting it as  a mandate or noncompliance. As Bill DiPaola says, “Don’t expect anything from anyone before you serve them.” Focus on trust and building an authentic relationship, and the harder conversations will become easier. 

How to measure the effectiveness of FBCs

The best way to measure the success of your FBCs and your efforts to support them, is to ask the people who know best – your franchisees! Conducting a franchisee satisfaction survey not only provides you with critical insights on franchisees’ relationship with FBCs, it can give FBCs data on what’s working and what’s missing for franchisees. It’s an opportunity for FBCs to customize the support they’re providing and build stronger one-on-one relationships with franchisees. 

Franchise Business Review has conducted franchisee satisfaction surveys for more than 1,100 franchise brands, and training and support is consistently one of the lowest scoring areas of our research. With the profitability of your franchisees and the growth of your brand on the line, gathering quantitative and qualitative feedback on the effectiveness of FBCs and the support you provide overall is a no-brainer. 

Click here to schedule a 10-minute demo to see how you can get a confidential assessment of your brand and find out what franchisees are saying about the support they receive.

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